Richard Branson

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NEW DELHI: British business magnate Richard Branson tonight expressed keen interest in setting up a greenfield airline in India if the government permitted him to do so. "We will be more interested in setting up our own greenfield airline if the government permits," Branson, whose group of companies includes premier British carrier Virgin Atlantic, told reporters after delivering the Madhavrao Scindia Memorial Lecture here....

NEW DELHI: The UK's Virgin Group is seeking permission from the Indian government to launch a domestic airline in the country, its chairman said Monday. "As a foreigner I'm not allowed to own a domestic airline ... I'm still lobbying to get permission to launch a domestic airline in India," Richard Branson told reporters on the sidelines of a business meeting. Branson also said that he is likely to announce one or two ventures in India in the coming weeks.

LONDON: Richard Branson, the billionaire owner of Virgin Atlantic Airways, said he's not sure British Airways will survive the recession and that the UK government should resist a bailout should the carrier collapse. "If they do go bust the government should let them go bust," Branson said on Monday. "Just because they were once the flag carrier doesn't mean the government should come in and bail them out. " Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic is the biggest rival to British Airways on long-haul routes from the UK, said he has no plans to make a bid for the larger carrier because it has too many liabilities and no paper value.

LONDON: Virgin Atlantic has become the first airline to introduce double-beds on board its planes, giving rise to claims that it is tacitly encouraging couples to cuddle up and get intimate. The move is the realisation of a dream of Virgin's owner Richard Branson, who wanted to give passengers a chance to get "closer together" on long trips, 'The Sunday Times' reported. Critics, however, believe that Virgin is overstepping the boundaries of taste and decency and could end up angering more passengers than it pleases.

BANGALORE: Hotelier Lalit Suri has uncorked an initial investment of Rs 50 crore in Kingfisher Airlines. Mr Suri, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP and owns Bharat Hotels, is likely to ramp up the portfolio in the one-year-old airline. Informed sources said Mr Suri has already invested in the Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher Airlines through the promoters quota for "a small stake". However, when contacted, Mr Mallya told ET: "Mr Suri is keen on investing in the airline. We have been friends for over 25 years now. There could be synergies between his hotel chain and Kingfisher Airlines.

Sir Richard Branson launching ice cubes in his own likeness for select passengers travelling on his airline has put a new spin on the idea of 'chilling out' with the boss. But seeing icy, grinning likenesses of the wavy-haired and goatee-bearded owner of Virgin Atlantic bobbing about in a glass could end up being a chilling experience of an entirely different kind for the unwary. Especially if the cubes - laser-honed design and precision notwithstanding - do not diminish in a uniform way and lead to alarming distortions to that famous visage.

LONDON: Richard Branson, the boss of airline Virgin Atlantic, Saturday hit out at the decision to ground flights due to volcanic ash from Iceland, saying there had been "no danger at all to flying". Branson also called on Britain's government to pay compensation to airlines, who have been left at least 1.7 billion dollars (1.3 billion euros) out of pocket, according to the airline industry umbrella body IATA. "This was very much a government decision to ground the planes and we would suggest that the government should compensate the industry," Branson said in London.

Richard Branson will take to the skies as an airline stewardess on a charity flight next month to finally fulfill a bet with business rival Tony Fernandes over the fortunes of their teams in the 2010 Formula One season. The Virgin Atlantic boss, as part of a wager with the India-born Air Asia honcho, will slip into a red skirt, with perfectly smooth and shaven legs (that's how AirAsia describes the process) and don full makeup on the Malaysian Ringgit 308 (one way, from Perth to Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur)

Virgin Atlantic chief Richard Branson's proposed plan to invest in an Indian airline joint venture in his personal capacity has revived the debate over liberalisation of foreign direct investment (FDI) in airlines. While the charismatic UK tycoon has come out with an interesting idea, the immediate reaction within the Indian government is that of scepticism with discussions hovering on 'surrogate investment' and the bar on 'indirect holding' by foreign airlines. While it is clear that the government is not happy with the idea of Branson presenting himself as in independent entity to tide over the restriction on Virgin Atlantic, it is necessary to question the restriction which works against the principle of synergy in investments.

Dhirubhai Ambani, Richard Branson and Sam Walton all created huge business empires in their own lifetimes. A common feature among them is that they had little or no formal training in business education. Can this fact be dismissed as a coincidence? One look at the profiles of these business icons reveals that what they did have was 'nothing to lose'. Most of them built their empires from scratch. Ivy league B-schools all over the world select highly-talented people, many of whom end up being leaders and top notch CEOs.